You can often somehow measure the generosity of a shopkeeper by the thickness of the banana bread slices they tempt you with. Their buttery, oily loveliness is offered to us in shiny glad-wrapped goodness as we take our change…and anxiously await the pleasure or slight distaste that awaits us.

Whatever they may taste like though, they often seem to give you the blues anyway. For you realise you’ve spent four dollars of dough, on an ungodly thin slice that’s also going to add a bit of dough to your tummy. Essentially a no-dough-win situation I think.

Unless of course, you bake your own. With ingredients slightly tweaked, this recipe should replace your banana bread blues with a thick bit of wholesome loveliness.

Method

• One cup of wholemeal flour
• Two tsp baking soda
• One tsp cinnamon
• One cup mashed ripe bananas
• One third cup olive oil
• Two free-range eggs
• Half cup honey or fruit juice

Ingredients

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• Grease a loaf tin well or line with baking paper.
• Sift together flour, baking soda and cinnamon.
• Using an electric mixer, beat olive oil and honey/fruit juice until frothy and well combined.
• Add eggs and beat until thick and pale.
• Very gently add flour mixture and bananas, alternating until just combined.
• Turn batter into pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Cool loaf in tin before turning out.

Ingredients

• 500g fresh, frozen or canned crab meat
• 4 ripe avocados
• 4 tsp mayonnaise
• Salt to taste
• Pinch ground pepper
• 2 drops Tabasco sauce
• ½ cup finely sliced celery
• 2 lemons

Method

• Check crab meat for pieces of shell or membrane.
• Split avocados in half lengthwise, remove seeds.  Gently widen the cavity towards the stem end.
• Remove the avocado pulp and mash it.  Mix the pulp and mayonnaise, add salt and pepper to taste and add Tabasco sauce.
• Gently fold in the crab meat and celery.
• Divide crab mixture among the eight avocado halves.
• Serve with a slice of lemon on the side.

Serves 8.

Losing weight can be just as hard as lifting the actual weights. Getting the motivation to go and work out is difficult for many people, despite the end goal that is hoped to be achieved. American fitness guru, Denise Austin, has another strategy to get you back into the gym and into shape.

Rather than making our overall goal to lose weight, she suggests adding smaller goals to increase your stamina and endurance. If you’re only able to do 18 sit-ups one week, try for 20 the next week. Developing routines and keeping things simple will make your goals easier to achieve. In addition, you’ll be improving your body as you lose weight, rather than decreasing muscle tone with the unhealthy methods that fad diets can provide.

There are many tests to take to see how fit you are and to benchmark your progress. They test the different measures of fitness such as flexibility, strength and endurance. Taking the test every few weeks can show your progress. If you get some friends to take it with you, you can motivate each other together - which should keep you motivated, and keep you fit.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp American mustard
• ½ cup plain yoghurt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp chopped dill
• 1/3 cup chopped shallots
• 1/3 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 16 sprigs fresh dill
• 4 salmon steaks

Method

• Whisk mustard, yoghurt, olive oil, chopped dill, shallots, pepper and vinegar in a small saucepan.
• Press two sprigs of dill onto the bottom of each salmon steak.
• Place the salmon in a steamer and press two more sprigs of dill onto the top of each salmon steak.
• Cover, bring the water in the bottom of the steamer to boil and steam for about six minutes.  Turn the heat off and let the salmon say in the covered steamer for another three minutes.
• Gently heat the sauce until it is warmed through.
• Serve the fish with the sauce.

Serves 4

• Nuts and Seeds – rich in beneficial oils, fibre and protein
• Sprouts, Spirulina and Wheat grass – a nutrient boost and detoxifer
• Raw Honey – kills bacteria, soothes sore throats, induces sleep
• Dark Chocolate – Antioxidants
• Goji, Acai or Pomegranate – Antioxidants
• Avocados – beneficial oils, high protein content
• Beans and lentils – high protein
• Onions and garlic – stimulates the immune system and fights infections
• Chillies – stimulates your metabolism
• Yoghurt – kills bacteria, prevents and treats intestinal infections
• Seaweed – Immune booster, kills bacteria,

Not every sinus sufferer needs these vitamins and minerals, but some very chronic sufferers do because of their great value in protecting the mucous membrane.

• Vitamin A: 36,000 International Units (IU) per day for one week, then 9000 IU per day for the rest of the month.  This initial dose is on the high side, but is not toxic.

• Vitamin C: 3000 mg first thing in the morning, then 1000mg on the hour for the rest of the day for one week, then 3000 mg per day for the rest of the month.

• Vitamin E:  500 IU per day for one week (one tablet morning and night), then 250 IU per day for the rest of the month (taken in the evening).

• SAFFLOWER: SUNFLOWER COLD PRESSED OIL:  Great for the very dry patient.  Dryness is very symptomatic of the sinus patient, dryness of the skin, the mouth and the nose.
  Take one dessertspoon on a salad or straight from the spoon once a day.

• Cold pressed oil is a great dietary addition for everyone’s good health.  It is of value for dry, scaly skin, high cholesterol, rheumatism and arthritis or any disease where there is a shortage of essential fatty acids.

PS: Robyn Kirby’s Herbs for Healing

GORSE is the flower for those who after many failures have lost their faith when in seemingly impossible situations.  In long chronic diseases, when no hope for recovery is left and the patient has lost all faith, Gorse is used.  They have suffered so many drawbacks that they think that nothing can help them anymore.  This could be useful for the sinus sufferer, used along with Rescue Remedy.

Preparation for Chronic Ailments

3 drops from each Stock Concentrate to a 30ml dropper medicine bottle, ¾ filled with spring water and topped up with brandy or cider vinegar (which act as preservatives).

Dosage

Take 4 drops of the diluted Remedy on the tongue four times daily.

PS: Flower Remedies, Christine Wildwood

Ingredients

• 2 large avocados, peeled and stoned
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• Pinch cumin
• 2 tomatoes, chopped finely
• ½ onion, grated
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Tabasco sauce to taste

Method

• In a bowl mash the avocado flesh with the lemon juice, garlic, Tabasco and spices until a smooth paste.
• Carefully fold in tomatoes and onion.
• Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with organic corn chips or raw organic vegetables.
• Should be made the day it is served